Big Sky Conference

Turnovers, miscues thwart Bobcats’ upset bid at EWU

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CHENEY, Washington — Another ranked team, another hard-fought rally and another afternoon filled with missed opportunities kept Montana State from the program-defining victory Jeff Choate and the Bobcats still thirst for.

MSU fell behind 24-7 to the defending Big Sky Conference champions of Eastern Washington entering the fourth quarter. As the Bobcats have all season, Montana State fought tooth and nail here on Saturday afternoon.

Bobcat junior running back Logan Jones scored a nine-yard touchdown on a speed option play to cut the advantage to 24-13 with 12 minutes, 17 seconds left to play. Montana State junior cornerback Braelen Evans came on a blitz to smash EWU All-American quarterback Gage Gubrud from behind, forcing a fumble that MSU recovered on the Eastern 22-yard line, the visitor’s second strip-sack-forced fumble of the afternoon. Five plays after Derek Marks recovered the fumble, the first touchdown of Nick LaSane’s senior season cut the host’s advantage to 24-19.

Montana State already had all the momentum before Ben Folsom’s huge special teams play. The junior safety from Dillon put his right shoulder directly on the ball, popping it loose from Dre Dorton’s grip on the ensuing kickoff. Folsom recovered, and the Bobcats took over 25 yards from the end-zone with 9:24 left.

Then it all fell apart. MSU quarterback Chris Murray botched a zone-read option fake and fumbled the ball. EWU defensive end Keenan Williams recovered. That was all Gubrud, junior running back Antoine Custer and the Eagles’ offense needed.

Custer added 42 yards to his career-high day of 147 yards on the ground while Gubrud continued to dazzle with his elusive style and clutch ability during a 13-play, 78-yard drive to take a 12-point lead with three minutes left. That’s where the margin would stay as No. 10 EWU posted a 31-19 victory in front of 11,298, its fourth in a row this season and its 44th conference win in its last 50 games dating back to the beginning of the 2010 season.

Montana State junior Logan Jones nine-yard touchdown

Montana State junior Logan Jones nine-yard touchdown

“They are always hard-fought, not matter if it’s home or away,” EWU head coach Aaron Best said after his team moved to 5-2 this season overall.

“We withstood a few storms and made things interesting. There was no quit in the ‘Cats – that is a quality team coached by a quality coaching staff. They are good for a reason. It’s only the second year of (Jeff) Choate’s tenure, but he has them going the right direction. We just happened to make a few more plays today.”

Montana State has now played five ranked opponents in six games this season. MSU took No. 4 South Dakota State down to the wire but two missed field goals and an SDSU fake field goal that turned into a touchdown cost MSU an early-season upset in a 31-27 loss.

The following week, Montana State got its first win by dismantling injury ravaged defending league co-champion North Dakota in a 49-21 win in Grand Forks. Late penalties and another missed field goal killed MSU in a 25-17 loss to Weber State. And here on Saturday, four turnovers, including two inside the red-zone, proved to be costly as MSU fell to 2-2 in Big Sky play, 2-4 overall.

“The hardest thing to take right now is knowing we are a pretty good football team, we’ve played a pretty tough stretch and we really thought this was a good opportunity for us today,” Choate said. “We had a good week of practice. We just weren’t very crisp in critical moments in the game.
“I was proud of the way they fought and how resilient they were in the second half in particular. I thought they kept fighting. But I also told them Bobcats can’t beat Bobcats. When you are playing the No. 10 team in the country at their place and they are very good, you can’t squander opportunities by giving them momentum by turning the ball over.”

Eastern Washington junior quarterback Gage Gubrud

Eastern Washington junior quarterback Gage Gubrud

Montana State limited Gubrud better than any other conference opponent thus far. The junior came into to the game averaging 452 yards passing over his last four games. The Eagles rode a four-game winning streak in which they averaged 604 yards of total offense during the red-hot month.

“Disappointing outcome today,” Choate said. “I’m very impressed with Eastern, in particular Gage. When we took things away from his ability to throw down the field, he was patient. We did not have an answer for him when he broke the pocket. That was frustrating because I thought we did a really good job of mixing coverages and creating some confusion for him, having him pat the ball. We just have to do a better job of finishing downs.”

Saturday, Gubrud completed his first 16 passes and 25-of-31 overall for 224 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown to Nsimba Webster to give EWU a 17-7 lead with 2:41 left in the first half. The Eagles managed 451 yards of total offense thanks 227 yards rushing, Eastern’s second-highest total on the ground this season. MSU sacked Gubrud four times, digging into his rushing total.

“We need to win games like that when we are right there,” Montana State sophomore inside linebacker Josh Hill said after returning from an injury that cost him three games to notch a game-high 17 tackles. “This is the position we seem to put ourselves in a lot. Most every game we’ve played in the last two years has come down to something similar. It seems like we are always on the losing side of it, which is extremely frustrating. We get close a lot and we never seem to finish.”

Montana State sophomore quarterback Chris Murray

Montana State sophomore quarterback Chris Murray

On Eastern’s game-sealing drive — a march that lasted 5:43 — he threw a 16-yard strike to senior Nic Sblendorio on a second down and 20 following a Marks sack. An ineligible player down field penalty eliminated the completion.

On third down and 26 yards to go, Gubrud threw a 22-yard strike to true freshman tight end Talolo Limu-Jones. On fourth and four, MSU junior defensive end Grant Collins flushed Gubrud but the junior gunslinger danced, juked, and sprinted his way to a first down.

“They had four down linemen but then they dropped their two interior and I was thinking, ‘Gage, don’t roll out, because they were spying the quarterback’ and then he rolled out and sprinted for the first down,” EWU junior center Spencer Blackburn said. “That was a huge play, just what we needed.”

Four straight Custer runs ended with the junior’s second touchdown of the day to thwart MSU’s upset bid.

“When you get to the point of the end of the game like that, any kind of momentum changes the way the rest of the game is going to go,” said MSU junior Zach Wright, who had MSU’s first sack-strip that sophomore Marcus Ferriter recovered. “When you get those turnovers like that, it’s huge momentum. As you saw, as the ball flipped back and forth, it was doing that and someone had to capitalize on it and we couldn’t get it done.

“There’s two different ways teams can respond. Teams can shut down or teams can fight. Me personally, being around this team being around my brothers, we are fighters. It’s not a matter of are we going to crash and burn because we are not. Every single guy in there is pissed off right now. We are going to come back and keep fighting. Even if it looks dire and there’s no hope, we are right there, ready to take the next step.”

Montana State tight end Connor Sullivan caught two of Chris Murray's 10 completions Saturday for 35 of MSU's 135 passing yards

Montana State tight end Connor Sullivan caught two of Chris Murray’s 10 completions Saturday for 35 of MSU’s 135 passing yards

The injuries continued to mount for Montana State, who turned to true freshman Troy Andersen to play significant snaps at both running back and linebacker with both positions thin. MSU also played sophomore wide receiver Kevin Kassis about two dozen snaps at nickel back on defense.

Offensively, senior left guard Caleb Gillis suffered a knee injury and did not return. Redshirt freshman Lewis Kidd filled and Choate said he “held his own.”

Collins suffered what appeared to be a shoulder injury late in the fourth quarter. Senior safety Khari Garcia had to be carried off the field after suffering what appeared to be a shoulder injury on a hit on Sblendorio in the second half.

LaSane, a senior who was suspended for the first four games of the season because of two different run ins with the law last summer, had his best day. He posted career highs of 19 carries for 87 yards, including his touchdown to cut the lead to five. But he and Murray botched the zone-read exchange following Folsom’s forced fumble, eliminating MSU’s momentum on the blood-red field known as the Inferno.

“There’s not really much to say about the last fumble,” LaSane said. “The Bobcats beat the Bobcats.”

Montana State sophomore quarterback Chris Murray and senior running back Nick LaSane

Montana State sophomore quarterback Chris Murray and senior running back Nick LaSane

MSU did not give up a fumble this season after a 2016 plagued by turnovers. Montana State’s three fumbles combined with Murray’s late interception gave EWU four takeaways and left the Bobcats shaking their heads.

“It’s frustrating. The turnovers beat us,” LaSane said. “It was very disappointing. When you are standing at the door, you have to kick it in. We are close, really close to being a great team and being very successful. We are going to get there.”

Photos by Blake Hempstead for Skyline Sports. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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